The recession ten years later...The fastest & slowest growing jobs over the past decade (full of surprises):
Bottom Line: The Great Recession actually started on or near November 20th of 2007. Here we are just over ten years removed from the start of the worst economic event that most of us have lived through. An awful lot has change in our economy and lives over the past decade but not all of it is obvious. Take for example job growth. If I were ask you what industries grew the most new jobs on a relative basis - I have a feeling you'd only get one of the top five. Here they are...
Educational Services: 24%
Healthcare: 23%
Hospitality/Food service: 19%
Professional & business services: 16%
Arts, entertainment & recreation: 15%
Now show of hands. How many people had arts & entertainment as a top five job growth industry? While most would correctly identify healthcare, I have a feeling there are otherwise more surprises than not. I seriously doubt anyone would suspect that education has experienced the most growth for example (this helps explain many of the teacher shortages for example). There's also an instructive narrative that goes against much of what's been perpetuated of late regarding education. Is there a need for increased STEM adaptation? No doubt. Is a lack of need/demand for many who lean towards liberal arts? Clearly no. The first and fifth fastest growers of jobs over the past decades have been liberal arts related. Conversely, here are the industries that shed the most jobs over the past decade:
Wholesalers: -2%
Mining: -3%
Construction: -8%
Manufacturing: -9%
Information: -10%
No real surprises here. It is notable that manufacturing, mining and construction have all been in recovery mode in 2017 however...Hopefully that's a trend.